Holiday happiness is a Red Trolley gingerbread house kit

Someone forgot to tell Red Trolley Cake, Coffee and Cone that ice cream shops are supposed to focus on summer fare.

This establishment at 2639 West 32nd Avenue is not only doing a brisk coffee, breakfast and lunch business alongside its sweeter offerings, but it's filling these wintry days with lots of seasonal events and offerings, including 45-minute gingerbread cookie-making workshops this Saturday, September 20, from 1 to 3 p.m. (cost is $10 a person), killer holiday pies made to order (word is the pumpkin eggnog flavor is to die for) and, as seen in this photo, possibly the greatest gingerbread house kits of all time.

That's right, you can be envy of your Christmas carol troupe with one of these beauties. Each piece of the $35 kit is handmade at Red Trolley, and everything's from natural ingredients -- so your finished product won't taste like cardboard, as supermarket gingerbread houses always seem to.

One warning: Your finished house probably won't look as good as the one pictured, since it was built by Deanna Parker, Red Trolley's renowned pastry and ice cream chef. Thirty-five bucks may get you all the pieces, but won't buy you mad skills. - Joel Warner